In general, a handover occurs in a communications system when a mobile station or simply MS (also commonly referred to as a communications device, user equipment, subscriber, user, and so forth) moves out of a coverage area of a first base station or simply BS (also commonly referred to as a NodeB, enhanced NodeB, base terminal station, controller, and so on) and into a coverage area of a second BS, and control of the MS changes from the first base station to the second BS.
In order to maintain expected performance levels and/or meet quality of service (QoS) requirements, existing bandwidth requirements of the MS should be preserved when the MS changes from the first BS to the second BS. If existing bandwidth requirements are not preserved, the MS may experience decreased performance levels, failure to meet one or more QoS requirements, dropped connections, and so on.